Fix for Control Center lag on iOS 9.2.1 (and possibly 9.2)

I figured out a way to completely get rid of Control Center lag* on iOS 9.2.1 (this may also work on iOS 9.2) without keeping the hideous Reduce Transparency setting and keeping all blur. It works really well for me on an iPhone 5s.

To achieve this, please do the following:

• Reboot device
• Go to Settings > General > Accessibility
• Turn on Reduce Transparency
• Go home, swipe Control Center up once
• Go back to Settings > General > Accessibility
• Then, turn off Reduce Transparency
• Swipe up Control Center slowly once again and determine if no frames are dropped

I hope this works for you all, as it has worked for me! Please leave feedback.

*"Control Center lag" refers to frames dropped as a result of the blur effect of Control Center as it is being completely swiped up.

For me it alleviates some of the frame rate issue but it does not by any means fix it. It quickly shows up again. Randomly during day to day use control center will be EXTREMELY good, hard to call perfect though like it used to be on iOS 8. But then later on it will be choppy and jittery in the exact same scenario. It goes on and off. Very weird.

I wonder if people with control center lag are using Standard or Zoomed display? Or is the lag there on both settings? I have a 6s, so I have no lag, but noticed the lag when using a friends 6 last night (his was set to zoomed)

I wonder if people with control center lag are using Standard or Zoomed display? Or is the lag there on both settings? I have a 6s, so I have no lag, but noticed the lag when using a friends 6 last night (his was set to zoomed)

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I use standard and see the lag. Just set to zoomed and the control center lag was the same. Using a regular 6 here. Oh and I've spotted tiny similar jitters on a family members 6S but it is MUCH less pronounced and a lot less of an issue. Most of the time it is perfectly fine though. Oh and tapping the airdrop thing has issues on the 6S sometimes. Usually it's smooth the first time but if you keep doing it it stutters and remains stuttery.

For me it alleviates some of the frame rate issue but it does not by any means fix it. It quickly shows up again. Randomly during day to day use control center will be EXTREMELY good, hard to call perfect though like it used to be on iOS 8. But then later on it will be choppy and jittery in the exact same scenario. It goes on and off. Very weird.

Click to expand...

That sounds like it has more to do with what else your phone is doing at the time.

That sounds like it has more to do with what else your phone is doing at the time.

Click to expand...

It's weird though because I'm basing this off of how control center performs while on the homescreen, same page and everything (I only have 1 page) sometimes it's smooth over the homescreen and other times it is most certainly not.

It's almost never smooth inside any app at all though. Also over the keyboard, open folder, app switcher, etc. It's weird coming from iOS 8 where cc was smooth in every single instance on my iPhone 6, never saw it slip up, however my iPad mini 2 did. iOS 8 was by no means perfect though, just generally smoother than iOS 9 but that's the later stages.

It's weird though because I'm basing this off of how control center performs while on the homescreen, same page and everything (I only have 1 page) sometimes it's smooth over the homescreen and other times it is most certainly not.

It's almost never smooth inside any app at all though. Also over the keyboard, open folder, app switcher, etc. It's weird coming from iOS 8 where cc was smooth in every single instance on my iPhone 6, never saw it slip up, however my iPad mini 2 did. iOS 8 was by no means perfect though, just generally smoother than iOS 9 but that's the later stages.

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It entirely depends how much things it has to blur on that particular screen.

It entirely depends how much things it has to blur on that particular screen.

Click to expand...

I know but what I was saying in one part of that post is that I get varying results on the SAME screen, it isn't blurring any less or any more.

Technically speaking the phone is always blurring the same amount no matter what you're currently doing, control center is the same size. it just depends on *what* it's blurring for some reason. Apparently blurring something that already is blurred is a LOT more stressful than just a normal screen.

I use standard and see the lag. Just set to zoomed and the control center lag was the same. Using a regular 6 here. Oh and I've spotted tiny similar jitters on a family members 6S but it is MUCH less pronounced and a lot less of an issue. Most of the time it is perfectly fine though. Oh and tapping the airdrop thing has issues on the 6S sometimes. Usually it's smooth the first time but if you keep doing it it stutters and remains stuttery.

Click to expand...

Ah thanks for that insight. The 6s definitely has the occasional performance/stuter issue -- it's super annoying. Again, I'm still on 9.0.2 (jailbroken), but I'm so tempted to upgrade in hopes of a smoother experience.

The stutter when tapping the airdrop button is the most noticeable, but I've seen that across all devices.

Ah thanks for that insight. The 6s definitely has the occasional performance/stuter issue -- it's super annoying. Again, I'm still on 9.0.2 (jailbroken), but I'm so tempted to upgrade in hopes of a smoother experience.

The stutter when tapping the airdrop button is the most noticeable, but I've seen that across all devices.

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Yeah it isn't there on the iPhone 5 though, it doesn't use metal so I think that's why it's better... However it's control center is a little less translucent. For example the white part of sliders and enabled icons aren't translucent at all, they're a solid white while the other devices have slightly transparent buttons and sliders. Also, the whole thing seems to be treated differently with the color saturation. Motice how the buttons are darker and the control center is lighter on the iPhone 6 but everything is a little less contrasty on the iPhone 5. I prefer the iPhone 5 look personally, looks more to the point and clean. Plus, the iPhone 5 just executes the control center more smoothly so it just feels nicer to use.

Here are some screenshots to show what I'm talking about. The varying look appears to be independent from automatically assigned settings due to screen resolution, etc. Control center still looks different on my iPhone 6 in zoomed mode, which shows everything the same as the iPhone 5 except control center in this case evidently.

That sounds like it has more to do with what else your phone is doing at the time.

Click to expand...

This. Also, that is probably related to RAM. iOS 8 was maybe "smoother" overall, because RAM was being used to hold many UI activities in cache and after iOS 9, that RAM was liberated to other tasks. That's why Safari had improved tab reloading: there's more RAM to apps, but less to cache wired UI elements, which depend on reads from the much slower NAND.
There is lag even on the 6S, but that only happens if you don't use UI functions for a long time whist using resource-heavy apps like Safari with multiple tabs, games and so on...
This is the true planned obsolescence: Apple provides little RAM, so it has to work with that and do what is possible. It's not on purpose, but only regarding software.
I also remember the last year and earlier, where many idiots "approved" only 1GB of RAM as being great, because they don't care about tabs in Safari. The positive side is that maybe those idiots are the ones suffering most right now. (Not that those people were you guys in this thread).

This. Also, that is probably related to RAM. iOS 8 was maybe "smoother" overall, because RAM was being used to hold many UI activities in cache and after iOS 9, that RAM was liberated to other tasks. That's why Safari had improved tab reloading: there's more RAM to apps, but less to cache wired UI elements, which depend on reads from the much slower NAND.
There is lag even on the 6S, but that only happens if you don't use UI functions for a long time whist using resource-heavy apps like Safari with multiple tabs, games and so on...This is the true planned obsolescence: Apple provides little RAM, so it has to work with that and do what is possible. It's not on purpose, but only regarding software.
I also remember the last year and earlier, where many idiots "approved" only 1GB of RAM as being great, because they don't care about tabs in Safari. The positive side is that maybe those idiots are the ones suffering most right now. (Not that those people were you guys in this thread).

And by the time they fix it or if they fix it,I will just be buying an iPhone 7

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Yeah and that iPhone will probably just power it's way through the shoddy software, giving Apple further excuses not to fix it. "Past iPhones are just aging" when really they are perfectly capable of being smooth, Apple just doesn't bother to fix the bad code causing the performance problems. I hate when good hardware starts to become an excuse for bad software.

The baffling thing is iPhone 5 and 5c are smoother in Control Center UI than 6S and 6S Plus.

But they stutter when scrolling in WhatsApp or just general. That smooth scrolling code wherever tables are used is borked.

Click to expand...

Yeah I've noticed this too. I sent a report into Apple with videos in 60FPS showing the clear difference between iPhone 6 and iPhone 5. The iPhone 6 was doing like a 20-30 FPS Control center on the lock screen where the iPhone 5 was completely smooth. The funny thing is the issue kind of flares up and goes away on my iPhone 6, sometimes control center is almost perfect but then later that day it is just nasty even after clearing the RAM and everything. The issue can further be seen when opening control center over an open folder on both devices.

Metal is doing it I'm sure. I'm not totally sure though if metal is just not optimized, or if it is actually just worse than Open GL. I hope it just needs optimization because I don't want to be stuck with stuttery iPhones forever just because Apple wants to use an inferior rendering API. Actually either way it probably will always stay stuttery because Apple won't feel like fixing it if it is indeed just needing optimization.

I wonder if people with control center lag are using Standard or Zoomed display? Or is the lag there on both settings? I have a 6s, so I have no lag, but noticed the lag when using a friends 6 last night (his was set to zoomed)

Click to expand...

I have a 5s and it is not capable of zoomed display. iOS 7 and 8 had perfectly smooth control center on this phone but iOS 9.2 is still a stuttery mess

I figured out a way to completely get rid of Control Center lag* on iOS 9.2.1 (this may also work on iOS 9.2) without keeping the hideous Reduce Transparency setting and keeping all blur. It works really well for me on an iPhone 5s.

To achieve this, please do the following:

• Reboot device
• Go to Settings > General > Accessibility
• Turn on Reduce Transparency
• Go home, swipe Control Center up once
• Go back to Settings > General > Accessibility
• Then, turn off Reduce Transparency
• Swipe up Control Center slowly once again and determine if no frames are dropped

I hope this works for you all, as it has worked for me! Please leave feedback.

*"Control Center lag" refers to frames dropped as a result of the blur effect of Control Center as it is being completely swiped up.

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